Fever Time

the first bout of fever, flu and cough of the year hit quite early this year. amir, who seldom fall sick, had it. he first complained about difficulty in breathing after he returned from agama school on tuesday. he stayed indoors that afternoon, not sure because he wasn't up to going out for his usual kick-a-bout or because he wanted to save his energy because he had tuition classes that night.

after he came back from class, he was breathing funny. i took him to the clinic on the way home and the doctor quickly prescribed the nebuliser for him. he was also given the next day off, something he was a bit upset about as he had a trial run that he was looking forward to. but the doctor said his condition would worsen if he participated in the run and that would ruin in chances of going for football during the weekend. so that made him listen.

the next day, amir stayed in and was breathing loudly even after several puffs of ventolin. at the same time, asyraf started coughing and sniffling. he too was given the day off by the doctor. both slept the day away, waking up for meals and medication before going back to sleep.

on thursday, when amir still sounded quite bad, i decided to seek our saviour's help, doctor azizi. amir hasn't seen him in a long time as he's taken all his primary vaccination and have not been terribly ill for a quite a while. he was actually nervous before the doctor called us into his room.

after a long check up, the doctor listen to amir's chest for ages, he gave us an ultimatum, get amir warded so that he can get his four-hourly nebuliser or come back later to do a round at the a&e. thinking about the other boys, and the fact that i would need to go home regardless which option i took, i told the doctor we'll go to the a&e that night. the doctor prescribed amir with a lot of medication. i asked him if amir needed to be tested for asthma, he said, its just a viral fever and flu and cough. so ok, none of the boys are asthmatic to date.

amir was out of commission for 3 days. he was sorely upset that he missed his first school run but was relieved that he was able to join the football training over the weekend.

New School Year 2015

school reopened a week late this year due to the massive flood the country experienced in late december. the boys took the news kind of half-half. they welcomed another week at home, with their iPods and ps3 but at the same time they missed their friends in school.

the day before school reopened, the boys and i went on an 'organising spree'. we prepared the bags, the uniform, shoes, stationeries; we cleared the laundry (me!) and we set our alarm clocks. this year would be slightly different. amir's in morning session in primary school and afternoon session in agama school. my route would change and my schedule would change.

i was still unsure of what time to leave home in the morning to get amir to school on time yet not too early so that everyone would have time to have a bowl of cereal. i was also unsure of what to do after sending asyraf and ariff to school, before amir's session is let out, and where to park and wait. i'm sure it'll come to me once i get the hang of it.

the morning of the first day of school, the boys woke up easily. but they were all very quiet. i guess all were anxious about going back to school. i first dropped off amir in school. he was the most anxious of the four, surprisingly. he said it was because he did not have his name tag but i'm guessing its more than that - new teachers, new subjects, new schoolmates, being the most junior out of the three years, pick one.

once amir was dropped off (walking extra slowly into the school compound), i drove around the neighbourhood to send akmal to school. this one was a short and sweet trip. asyraf, ariff & i walked akmal to his class where he quickly walked in, put his bag in a corner, said hi to his friends and totally ignored the three of us. oh ok then.

we walked back to our car, me with a heavy heart and asyraf and ariff with a skip in their stride as they can't wait to get to agama school. that's where i spent the longest time. paying fees for 2 boys took almost 2 hours. it does get a bit tired doing this year in, year out and i have to repeat in the afternoon when i send amir *sobs*

by the time i settled paying their fees, we went home to refresh, the boys changed their uniform and we had a quick lunch. we went to pick akmal up who was chattering all the way, telling us about his class, his teacher and his friends. i sent asyraf & ariff to sk and parked all the way in d'bayu as there was virtually no space to wait within 2km of the school. ok, first day of school and all that, i understand. i was stuck in a horrible jam after dropping the boys off and picking up amir that he had to rush to bathe and change his uniform and could only have lunch in the car.

in agama school, it was another long queue to pay the fees. i hope next year we can pay during the school holidays as i have 4 classes to run around to. amir's ustaz did say they wanted to implement that this year but could not for some reason or another. if i could pay during the holidays, then i wouldn't waste so much time next year and can concentrate on monitoring akmal who would be in primary school.

all in all, it was a pretty good first day of school. the only drawback was the terrible horrible traffic and the hours spent to pay the fees at agama school. so boys, have a great year in school, okay? please don't stress your mummy out more than you already have.

Double Digit

he's ten!! happy birthday to my first born, engku amir iskandar. i tell you, he's been waiting for this day and counting down for the longest time. i guess turning ten is a big deal to a child. i think it was a big deal to me thirty years ago as i remember i had a huge party at home. i remember pulut kuning and err…that's all i remember actually hah!

anyway, despite the counting down that he did, there wasn't a big hoohaa for him this year. school was pushed back another week due to the flood so he wasn't in school and no friends wished him happy birthday other than virtually via his instagram account. hubby was busy at work after taking a 3-week leave so we only managed to squeeze in a quick dinner for him.

takpe lah amir, let's not get used to having big celebrations, small and intimate dinners with family is more than enough. insyaAllah, i'll probably have a one-shot, all-in-one, combo-four party one of these years (years so that i have a longer deadline).

back to the birthday boy, he's changed so much. he was very difficult the past few years particularly back in 2012 - 2013. i remember those times clearly. it was as though he was fighting with the world, not listening, lazy, rebelling at every thing, picking fights with his brothers, showing his displeasure at everything. i used to distance myself from him because i couldn't take his nasty attitude at that time and he used to get massive scolding from hubby for fighting back.

alhamdulillah, he's gotten more mature, more easy going, more easy to reason with after that period. he's back on form in school - performing in some subjects, slightly below par in some, he's pushed himself with his football - he's been called to practice with the under-12 team, he's starting to eat more and putting on a bit of weight - though he has a long way to go if he wants to continue to play with the under-12 team, he's focused on his interest and have set his sights on what he wants to be when he grows up, he's been really helpful around the house and he's been good preparing his clothes, uniform and school bags (i highly emphasise on this as a starting point of being organised).

he is very into three things at the moment - football, photography and planes.

he still has his bad side. one i can't stand the most is how rough he can be with his brothers. he's very loving on one side, which is wonderful, but he can also be very rough. he kicks and punches his brothers and if he does that with ariff, you can bet both would come out with bumps and bruises - they actually use furniture to hit each other. he is moody and pouts like nobody's business when he's being veto-ed, usually when it comes to the clothes he chose and the hairstyle he wants. sorry, daddy & mummy still decide those things for you.

amir is my sparring partner. gets me irked with his requests, showing his displeasure when i turn him down but quickly overcoming it and coming up to apologise and would repeat 'ok lah, kita dengar cakap mummy'. he's the one i look for when i need to talk to somebody, maybe because he's much more compassionate and can find the words to appease me.

abang long, thank you. because of you, i am open to a whole new world, i read more things, i do research on so many subjects. you take me on a never-ending road of learning and i am grateful for that.

all sorts of amir in the past decade…

and on the day he turns ten, alhamdulillah

Health Check Up

out of the four boys, i worry about asyraf and akmal's health more. alhamdulillah, amir and ariff's been quite ok when it comes to health, only getting the usual fever, flu, cough, stomach flu. of course there's the occasional urti that requires the nebuliser and the age that requires the drip and that once-off roseola amir had but nothing too alarming and nothing that carries on for a long period.

asyraf and akmal, however, is more susceptible to getting sick. akmal, of course with his small nasal airways, his allergy to everything under the sun, comes up tops. asyraf used to fall sick often when he was younger (those bi-monthly hospital admissions that made me end each year with negative leave balances) is thankfully spared once he grew older. but now, he's starting to see the doctor more often. not our saviour, dr azizi, now he's seeing the pediatric dermatologist, dr mardziah. i still cringe seeing her name, as she was the one who asked to akmal to be admitted to the nicu when his oxygen level fell to 50% when he was only a month old - but that's another story.

asyraf's visited dr mardziah a couple of times back in 2013, for the molluscum contagiousum that she used dried ice as treatment.

this time it was for the stuff on his face. everywhere we went and everyone we met said it was 'panau' or more commonly (uhuh…) known as pityriasis versicolor. after almost two months of seeing it wasn't going anywhere, and being in our holiday pictures, we took him to see dr mardziah - only because hubby had an appointment with his doctor at dsh.

dr mardziah concluded that it was eczema, not surprising as asyraf always had a love-hate relationship with his skin. good thing its not triggered by food since asyraf loves to eat and i'm not up to going through his food intake. its more likely because of his dry skin so he was prescribed with bath gel-ish soap, cream for his dry skin and hydrocortisone to put on the affected area.

from dr. greene…
doctors call on of these pityriasis alba, which is latin for white, scaly patches. children with this extremely common condition develop uneven, round or oval patches after sun exposure. the pathces are dry with very fine scales. varying from 1 to 2 inches in diameter, the are most common on the face (cheeks), neck, upper trunk and upper arms of children 3 to 16 years old.

these are completely benign, similar to a mild form of eczema. they are most common in children with dry skin. the involved patches don't darken with sun exposure the way the surrounding skin does. treatment involves daily lubrication with a good moisturizer, especially whenever the skin gets wet.

she also mentioned about parents with asthma, so ok, that's me.

per mr wikipedia…
kids who get eczema often have family members with hay fever, asthma or other allergies. some experts think these kids may be genetically predisposed to get eczema, which means characteristics have been passed on from parents through genes that make a child more likely to get it. about half of the kids who get eczema will also develop hay fever or asthma themselves.

so that would require a visit to dr azizi in the future...